Education budget has taken huge hits

Monday

Sep 27, 2010 at 12:01 AM

It’s no secret that Alabama’s education budgets have taken major hits in the last couple of years. State education Superintendent Joe Morton told the state school board last week just how bad it has been for both K-12 and higher education.The Legislature appropriated $5.495 billion to the Education Trust Fund for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. That amount is $1.23 billion less than the 2008 education budget of $6.729 billion.It would have been worse had the state not been able to save and use $876.4 million from the rainy day account and the proration prevention account to prop up budgets since 2008.Of the combined $876.4 million in the two accounts, $437.4 million from the oil and gas trust fund has to be repaid by fiscal year 2015. If the Legislature repays it in four equal installments, each payment will be $109.3 million. If the Legislature waits, each year’s payment will be higher. Reduced appropriations also were offset by hundreds of millions of dollars in federal stimulus or job protection funding.

The 45-day campaign finance report filed by the Alabama Republican Party had two interesting contributions listed.Contributions of $2,500 each were made by “Auburn University” and the “University of Alabama,” according to the party.GOP spokesman Philip Bryan said the “contributions” were reimbursements from Student Government Associations at the schools to the party for fronting expenses for the debates by the two gubernatorial candidates, Republican Robert Bentley and Democrat Ron Sparks.

Sparks claims to have narrowed the poll gap between himself and Bentley. Sparks last week said a Capital Survey Research Center poll from July 21 had his campaign down 22 points, but the margin since has narrowed to 13 points.Sparks said the poll showed Bentley with 52 percent, him with 39 percent and 9 percent undecided. The poll numbers show Sparks must get all the undecided voters and some of Bentley’s voters if he will have a chance to win on Nov. 2.Sparks said the more people hear his message, the more likely they are to vote for him.The Mobile Press-Register reported similar results from a Rasmussen survey. It said Bentley leads Sparks, but his lead has shrunk. The survey of 500 likely Alabama voters said 55 percent would vote for Bentley and 35 percent would vote for Sparks, with 8 percent undecided. The survey also said 1 percent favored someone besides Bentley and Sparks.The poll had a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points. Ramussen last month said Bentley was leading Sparks 58 percent to 34 percent.

Bentley got the endorsement of the Alabama State Fraternal Order of Police last week.He pledged, if elected, to work with law enforcement agencies.

The Alabama Silver-Haired Legislature last week adjourned its 2010 session with the passage of resolutions asking the next governor and Legislature to consider bills for the state’s 500,000 senior citizens. The Silver-Haired Legislature, according to its website, is a nonpartisan, nonprofit model legislature of citizen volunteers ages 60 and older elected or appointed by their peers to represent the interests of older Alabamians. It is a copy of the Alabama State Legislature, with members representing each of the 105 state legislative districts.It voted to support legislation permitting grandparents who raise grandchildren without formal guardianship rights to submit affidavits of guardianship for approval for medical care, school admission and activities and government assistance.Seniors also would like the Department of Public Health to require memory and dementia screening for all new applicants to independent living facilities and to prohibit admission to centers not licensed to care for them. The Silver-Haired Legislature also seeks creation of a state interagency council for the prevention of elder abuse and to reduce from eight hours to four the voluntary driver safety course in order to qualify for reduced in auto liability insurance premiums.Other resolutions include creation of a joint legislative committee on aging, surveillance or monitoring devices at nursing homes at the residents’ option, amended state ethics laws to prohibit legislators from accepting lobbyist gifts, prohibit the shifting of campaign contributions through various political action committees, subpoena power for the Ethics Commission, prohibit texting by any driver, increase senior funding, and increase funding for brain- or spine-injured adults.

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